Poems of the Decade Revision

Poems of the Decade Revision is an important use of time for students studying the English Literature A Level or AS Level provided by Edexcel; a selection from the anthology are part of the prescribed texts meaning that they may be part of the final exam. For A Level, poetry is part of the third exam and in total accounts for 30% of the qualification. One half of that exam made up of the Post-2000 poetry that is part of the Poems of the Decade Anthology, and the other half a selection of Pre-1900 poetry, such as English Romantic Verse. In the AS qualification, poetry is included in the poetry and drama exam. Teaching Resources for the Poems of the Decade Anthology can also be found by clicking here.

Poems of the Decade Revision

This is a relatively new course, with the first A Level assessment thaven taken place in June 2017. There are a total of 20 poems that are prescribed, of which two will be selected in the exam paper. You will have to pick one of two specified questions, each of which will have one poem that is part of this collection and one unseen poem.

For AS Level students, you will be given two questions to pick from, and each will specify a poem to be used. It is then up to you to decide on another poem to use from the prescribed anthology, meaning that it is important to be confident on all the set poems and the different ways they can link to each other.

Previously Prescribed Poems

A number of poems were removed from the prescribed list in 2017 for AS and A Level, meaning that you will not be examined on these poems. However, they act as a great option to use for practice essays and general Poems of the Decade revision, with analysis available to support your learning. International exams may still use these poems – confirm with your teacher.

Sorry I didn’t realise you were talking about the international exams. 8ET0 and 9ET0 are the AS and A Level exams studied in the UK and have had the 8 poems removed. As far as I can see, the international exam WET01 still has all the original poems. You can find the full information on the Edexcel website here including the prescribed texts.

We recommend talking to your teacher / educational establishment to confirm the specific details of the exact course you are studying.

We don’t have any specific predictions for the AS exam however we made some predictions here for last years A Level exam and this seem strong contenders for potential inclusion in this AS exam. It’s still quite difficult to predict as there isn’t much history to base them on yet though.

Unfortunately I’m not familiar with the January exams so don’t have any recommendations specific to them. If you look at our previous tips for other exams though it’s all quite similar in terms of the approach and potential topics. We’ve also got a range of example questions here.